Make a Gift or Open a New Fund

Donors without a specific interest area who want to make a positive impact in the community should consider establishing an unrestricted endowment using a name of your choice. The foundation will use the proceeds from your unrestricted fund to address the community’s most pressing needs over time.

A minimum gift of $5,000 will establish a unrestricted endowed fund. Donors have three years to meet the gift minimum. A 1% annual fee will be charged annually on an unrestricted endowed fund.

To see a sample Unrestricted Fund Gift Agreement, contact us.

Field of Interest funds allow donors to target their gifts to address needs in a particular area of interest. Donors might create a field of interest fund to support, for example, animal welfare, arts and culture, civic engagement, community and/or economic development, education, environment, health, human needs, reduction of poverty, youth, or the elderly. Field of Interest funds have gift restrictions that are sufficiently flexible to meet changing community needs over time. After a field of interest fund is created, the instructions provided in the fund agreement will guide the award of grants through the FAV’s competitive application process. A minimum gift of $10,000 will establish a field of interest fund. Donors have three years to meet the gift minimum. A 1.25% annual fee will be charged annually on a field of interest fund. 

To see a sample Field of Interest Fund Gift Agreement, contact us.

You have great flexibility in establishing an FAV scholarship. The broader the criteria you specify, the more potential candidates your scholarship will benefit. The FAV will use a scholarship selection committee to select recipients for your scholarship based on your scholarship criteria and the applications which are submitted. Scholarship awards will be paid directly to the institution(s) where scholarship recipients are enrolled. A minimum gift of $15,000 will establish a scholarship fund. Donors have five years to meet the gift minimum. A 1.5% annual administrative fee will be charged annually on a scholarship fund.

To see a sample Scholarship Fund Gift Agreement, contact us.

Donor Advised Funds (browse FAQs on Donor Advised Fund) offer an easy, low-cost, and tax-favored way to give and be more actively involved in recommending grants from your endowed fund. You name the fund and retain the ability to advise the FAV on how the fund’s income should be distributed as grants after earnings have accumulated in your fund. You can pass on the advisory role to one/two generations of successor advisors that you name. Donors/Fund Advisors can elect to recommend charitable projects or organizations they wish to support during the FAV’s annual competitive grant process, or outside of the competitive process throughout the year. Donors can request guidance on grantee selection from our knowledgeable staff, or select their own advisory committee to assist in choosing grant recipients. Each grant from a Donor Advised fund, however, is subject to approval by the FAV Board of Directors.

A minimum gift of $10,000 will establish an endowed donor-advised fund. Donors have three years to meet the gift minimum. A 1% fee will be charged annually on a donor-advised fund. The FAV also has an option for a non-endowed donor-advised fund with a minimum gift of $5,000.

To see a sample Donor Advised Fund Gift Agreement, contact us.

Designated Fund specify in advance how grants are to be distributed and the FAV administers the grants as you have specified without further action by you. You designate one or more public charities to benefit from the fund’s income and the desired terms for the disbursements. Per the terms of the agreement, regular disbursements will be made from the fund. If one (or more) of the original beneficiary charities ceases to exist, the foundation will redirect that support to a public charity with a similar mission or to an alternate public charity that you may specify. A minimum gift of $10,000 will establish an endowed designated fund. Donors have three years to meet the gift minimum. A 1.25% fee will be charged annually on a designated fund.

To see a sample Designated Fund Gift Agreement, contact us.

Nonprofit organizations interested in establishing an endowment to support current and future needs can create an FAV agency fund to provide annual income and support the organization’s mission in perpetuity. Using the FAV to manage agency endowments frees nonprofits to focus on their programmatic mission. 

A minimum gift of $5,000 will establish an endowed designated fund. Donors have three years to meet the minimum. A 1% fee will be charged annually on an agency fund. The FAV also has agency fund options for quasi-endowed and non-endowed funds.

To see a sample Agency Fund Gift Agreement, contact us.

People or organizations who want to honor family members, friends and colleagues can create a memorial or celebration fund. If the fund is to become endowed, the minimum amount required to establish an unrestricted or agency endowment is $5,000. For a field of interest fund, donor-advised fund, and designated fund, the minimum gift is $10,000. To establish an endowed scholarship requires a minimum gift of $15,000. If the memorial/celebration fund does not reach $5,000 in three years and is not intended to become a new endowed fund, the funds will be held in an interest-bearing money market account to maintain liquidity until the funds are spent or transferred into a permanent endowed fund.

Special project or campaign funds are temporary funds created for an event or until the fund meets the requirements and minimums to become a permanent endowed fund. There is no minimum required to establish a special project/campaign fund. The funds are held in an interest-bearing money market account to maintain liquidity until the funds are spent or transferred into a permanent endowment fund.